Rice quality at heart of U.S. market share woes in Latin America

Rice

United States

Market & Price Trends

Published Jan 3, 2024

Tridge summary

The Southern U.S. rice industry is seeking to expand market share in Latin America, but needs to focus on rice quality. Latin American customers prefer rice with long grain, consistent length, low chalkiness, and that doesn't clump together when cooked. Despite losing market share to South American competitors, there is hope for the U.S. to reverse this trend by focusing on producing the quality of rice that Latin American countries want.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

Southern U.S. rice farmers were cautioned to focus more on rice quality as the industry seeks to expand market share in Latin America and elsewhere. The caveat to this is understanding the word “quality” from the perspective of customers in Central and South America. Latin American customers don’t want sticky rice, according to Amilcar Ybarra Rojas, president, and CEO of Agricorp S.A., a rice marketer from Nicaragua. Neither do they want chalky rice. Tim Walker, general manager of Horizon Ag, a Memphis-based rice company with deep connections to the U.S. Southern rice industry, said Latin American customers buy rice with their eyes: they look at it for its long grain, consistent grain length, and low chalkiness. Secondly, they don’t want it to clump together when cooked. About 15 years ago the U.S. began to lose market share to South American competitors who were able to meet the higher quality demands of Latin American customers. Walker said the loss in market share does not ...

Source: Farm Progress